The Great Silence
The Great Silence is a period of history when the divine powers of the gods were taken from the humans of the world. Occurring immediately after the Night of Fire (War of the Burning Heavens), the period known as the Great Silence lasted for an entire century; nearly to the day. 527 KR - 627 KR Only the Humans were affected by the Great Silence - a punishment by the gods. This caused many human kingdoms to make war upon the other, blaming each for the loss of their Healers. The other races, seeing what had happened to the Humans, took pity and attempted to offer the services of their own clerics. As it turned out the gods were complete with their scorn. No divine magic would work for any human, regardless of the source of the magic. To this end, the Gnomes of the Provinces offered to teach the humans of the Kels their knowledge of Alchemy . With such skill, it was thought, that the Humans could at least provide some degree of medical aid to their people. The Cause The Great Silence was inflicted upon humanity for their trafficing with demonic forces and for opening a rift between the Abyss and Arland. The gods lost many of their number in fighting back the armies of hell and sealing the rift and for their loss they decided to cut all of humanity off from them for a century. Those who were dealing with demons, the Warlocks , were eager to gain a degree of power that was denied to the humans since the other races would not teach them Arcane or Druidic magic. The Silence began in what the humans referr to as the 'Night of Fire ' and is remembered every year with night-long worship at their temples. The Begining ''In the Human Lands ''Because humans could not receive any divine healing they reached out to any cleric of the other races for assistance. Many cleric was lured to the human lands with promises of gold, land and title if they would heal for them. Each time the non-human clerics attempted to cure the humans they failed. This eventually caused the humans to believe that the clerics of the gnomes, elves and dwarves were somehow refusing to heal them and a rift developed between the humans and all other races. For the hundred years of the Great Silence and an additional hundred years the rift between the humans and the other races was something that drove them apart. '' '''The Kels & Marches: '''Temples that had once been the center of the community were now abandoned and, in some cases, demolished to make room for other structures or to canibalize the building materials. Only the most secure of temples whose defences remained strong in the face of angry mobs could stand up to the months of panic and assault. Most of the temples of Arn were destroyed save those who were built strong and firm within the larger cities. Temples to Amara , though not built as strong, were spared the wrath of the mob as they were able to provide some degree of healing in the form of herbal remedies and alchemical medicine. Gorm, the Smith, was not attacked as he had few actual temples within the human lands. Though many craftsmen had shrines to him in their shop few were attacked because of it. Sylvalune, for similar reasons, was not attacked outwardly. As the Lady of Leaves, most of her shrines were located deep within the forest and were outside of the view of most of the mobs. The venom and rage of the mob was visited upon the libraries of Gizad with more ferver than anyone anticipated. Not as well guarded or built to withstand attack as the temples of Arn, the library-temples of Gizad were an easy target. The books and scrolls of the Scribe were put to the torch and many of the followers were burned - thinking that they knew why the gods had abandoned the world but had refused to tell anyone. '''Sekket: '''Prior to the Great Silence, the Kingdom of Sekket was little more than a trading city on the southern coast of Arland that was constantly plagued by Hobgoblin raiders from the sea and troll attacks from the east. While they were embroiled in what seemed to be a seasonal war with the trolls the Great Silence befell all of humanity and the Kingdom of Sekket was left without their divine healers. Warfare, which up until that time had always favored the humans because of their priests and clerics, turned into a fight for survival as both troll and hobgoblin forces choaked the kingdom nearly to death. The rulers of Sekket sent emissaries to their neighbors to the north, the elven kingdom of Sylvanar, only to be rejected. Though some clerics of the elves did try and aid the Sekketi forces not one god, no matter the cleric, would heal a single human. The royals of Sekket were desperate for aid which eventually came in the guise of what was told to them were 'sea elves'. Masquerading as aquatic elves, the Serpent Folk who had been nearly hunted to exinction in the Tauric Wars, presented themselves to the King and Queen of Sekket and offered their druidic healing in exchange for a place within their city. By this time the rulers would have promised anything for a way to turn the tide of war. The son of the Sekketi royal family was wed to the daughter of the "sea elves" and the kingdom began to prosper. It took over four generations for the reality of what had happened to come to light. The serpent-folk with their knowledge of druidic magic, disguised themselves and their offspring to appear as human. It wasn't until the later days of the Great Silence did the true, serpentine nature become known. By then the serpent folk had infested nearly every noble family in the kingdom and their offspring showed signs of various serpentine featueres. Only the occasional abomination was ever birthed and they were always sterile. '''Petros: '''They also freaked out and turned to the Druids of the Sea (halflings?) for their healing. The Middle During the middle of the Great Silence (approximately twenty years after the start), a number of big changes had occured with the human lands: *Through increased contact with the Gnomes, knowledge of Apothecary Sciences spread throughout the Marchlands and the Kels *Gnomish contact brought with it the spread of the Gizadi faith though the gods were still not answering the prayers of humans. *Human priests of Arn swore oaths of service to their god and became the first Paladins . *Norvik raiders began attacking human settlements along the southern coast of the North Sea of the North Marches. (The first of the Norvik attacks raided and destroyed a small holding on the shore of the North Sea in the barony of Northshield in the year 559 KR. The End One hundred years to the day the gods returned to Arland. Their return had been fortold in one of the Devora Prophecies but many humans had either burned the copies or had forgotten the promise made by the gods to the Sylvanari Priestess of Gizad. Their return did not come quickly. Many of the first priests and clerics to be gifted with a Revelation were not within the cities. It was as though the gods wanted to reward the more faithful of their followers and allow the punishment to linger in the cities were the problem first began. It is said that some two-dozen priests and clerics received their revelation in their greatest hour of need all throughout the Marches. Each was warned by their god not to report their revelation to the cities and what remained of their high temples there. There would be more followers converted in the days to come and then, once the newly blessed priests were of suffecient strength, would they make their way to the Kels and set things to right. The Day of Revelations , as it became known, was that first day when the gods returned to humanity. Those noble houses who were lucky enough to have a follower of the 'old gods' become blessed became incredibly influential within their corner of the kingdom. Word of the god's return began to spread throughout the Marches, both north and south, by the first new followers of Gizad. These followers felt their god's command to travel from town to town and bring news of the events that had occured on that fateful day and to bring hope, knowledge and healing to the people. These first followers, three of them in fact, founded the Order of Grey Monks of Gizad or simply the Pilgrims . Since the Order of the Blazing Sun would not give up their authority so easily, they launched the Crusade of Silence against any of the new clerics not of their (new) faith. Outcome Humans Each domain of humanity had its own reaction to the great silence. *The Kels: ''The Kels, by the time of the Day of Revelations, had grown rich with so many flocking to their cities in the hopes of finding hope and alchemical cures. Each of the five cities had grown to be seperate city-states, oweing no fealty or allegiance to the other. *'The North Marches:' The North Marches, free of the political intrigue of the Kels, had been settled and emerged as a fairly tamed region of landed barons who controlled their people as their will deemed fit. By the end of the Great Silence many corners of the Marches had been settled and remained in peace. *'The South Marches:' The South Marches, embroiled in continual squabbles and petty intrigues, were only slightly less political than the Kels but rather than having only one ruler to deal with, they had dozens. Every Baron wanted his will to be felt as far as he could see. *'The East Marches:' The Trade City of Koraj had been settled during the early years of the Silence, when humans were fleaing the Kels and traveling up and down the Black River. By the time the Silence had been lifted and Clerics returned to humanity, the Trade City was a hive of piracy, crime and commerce. *'Northlands: '''The humans who traveled further north to escape the disease, sicklness and death of the Kels, founded the nomadic tribes of the Northlanders on the slopes of the Shield Mountains. Aside from each of the regions having a political or cultural change, there was also a universal shunning of religion, deities and any reminder of their existence. This means that temples were destroyed, libraries where knowledge of the gods was kept were burned and any who would profess a belief was often shunned or killed. Additionally, casters of nearly every sort were suspected of being in league with 'infernal forces' and hunted by the remains of the Order of the Blazing Sun. This also meant that many of the other races quickly removed themselves from any human settlement as the humans eventually accused them of causing the schism between them and the gods. Dwarves *'Hill Dwarves:' Increased trade with the humans who settled in the North. *'Mountain Dwarves:' No change. Halflings *'Hanabril:' In some cases the Hanabril were saught out for their Druidic healing (the North Marches). In others they were captured, subjugated and enslaved as a work force (the South Marches). . *'Tenebril:' With the emergence of the Malanari from their exile, many Tenebril accompanied them to the surface and helped reclaim the darkened city of Solandyl. Elves *'Solonari: Many of the surviving Solonari remain hidden within the Elven Lands of the Sylvanar. *'Malanari: '''With the seal upon their kingdom broken, many Malanari emerged to retake the darkened city of Solandyl. Once reclaimed they sent spies and scouts out into the lands to see what had happened to the surface world in their absence. Contact was made with the humans but they have remained wary of other elves. *'Sylvanari: 'They have attempted to offer what healing they can to the humans who were worthy of their efforts but many were content to reside within their elven forests and ignore the outside world. *'Crysanari: 'They were generally unaffected. *'Quenari: '''As humans were forbidden divine healing by the gods, the number of half-elven children born grew to an unheard of rate. It was thought that if a family had elven blood then divine spells could work through them; which it did. Many human families in the Kels attempted to court the Elves of Sylvanar to no success. Some human families in the North Marches were more successful creating a few family lines showing elven heritage (Silverhair Bloodline). Some members of the South marches were also able to create an elven bloodline either by rape or by marriage. Gnomes *Gizaryl: The Gizaryl, as the followers of Gizad spread throughout the human lands offering to educate their people and establish Priories. *Berkeron: The Berkeron set up a huge trading fleet to do business with the Kels, offering the sale of Alchemical goods in return for the wealth of the human lands. *Ulevari: The Ulevari, as the Alchemists of the Gnomish peoples, were scattered throughout the human lands as cities, barons and lords offered them their weight in silver if they would settle in their lands and aid their people. Appendix '''Characters ''Campaigns Campaign/Great Silence Fiction'' Fiction/Great Silence Category:Deity Category:History Category:History/Human Category:Event/South Marches Category:Event/North Marches Category:Event/Kel Arn